Squirrels, Ducks and a big green Turtle

Finally my mum and Ruby's mum got their act together to take us out on a proper adventure today, we've had too many Fridays of hanging around apartments because of the wet weather or just going somewhere local. Today the sun was shining so we all went out in my car to Golden Gate Park.

Our mums took us to the lovely childrens playground first to check out all the different things we could do. As I'd been a good girl and taken my first nap without any problems I was allowed to go and play in the sand which was very different to the sand at the beach but just in case I decided to taste it anyway - not quite as salty. My pal Ruby is still practicing her army interrogation skills and even though it was gone 11 o'clock by the time we got to the playground she still hadn't napped and was holding out despite her mum's best efforts to make her sleepy (the hat blindfold, the dummy / pacifier gag, the blanket restraint everything!). She's going to be excellent soldier when she grows up. Anyway Ruby wasn't allowed to play so our mums packed us up and took us for a walk through the park. It was a beautiful day today, lots of sunshine which makes me sleepy (but not my pal Ruby!). I dozed off somewhere in the Botanical Gardens and woke up to find our mums finishing off their little picnic - not fair!!! Ruby was still going strong so they gave us some food and put us down on our blanket to explore the park. Ruby wasted no time in finding a daisy to eat:

and when Erika and my mum were busy taking photos of Ruby I ate a dried leaf:
- not very tasty but I'm getting very fast now at picking things up and hiding them in my mouth before mum notices. My mum gave me a stick of cheese to nibble on to keep me off the leaves but what she didn't know is that I'm pretty good with my two new teeth and where I used to just suck on things I can now bite pretty well and I can bite big old chunks of cheese off and hide it in my mouth very well. I think this annoyed my mum a little bit because she shoved her finger in my mouth to take the cheese out and then took my cheese off me. Well this was really really unfair so I showed her one of my other new developmental milestones and threw my head back and screamed the place down - that's what I'm going to do now whenever anyone takes something off me that I don't want them to have so they'd better watch out!!! I think she was a bit embarrassed about my shouting because she picked me up and tried one of her distraction techniques - this was a really good one though, she showed me this little fella that was scampering across the ground with a big bushy tail. He came right the way over to us so I stopped shouting because I didn't want to scare him, he sniffed mum's knee then scampered away - very cute.

After the picnic Ruby had decided that she'd practiced her awake skills enough and decided to take a nap. It was a shame really because we were going to go to the best bit which was to feed the ducks. My mum has been making duck noises at me for a couple of months now but I'm still not ready to say it back to her - I'm sticking with my favourite UUgghh noise for the time being. We walked up to Stow Lake and I saw some moor hens and a couple of ducks - they were brilliant! Mum threw them some bread and then it seemed like every seagull and pigeon in San Francisco came to visit. Now I don't know if you know this but I love birds, I mean really really love birds so I thought this was just the best. Mum held me while I flapped my arms like a bird, shouted 'Ugghh' at them a lot and did my best spit gargle sound for them. It was brilliant! Here are some photos Erika took of me having the best time:
Poor old Ruby missed all the excitement but I think she was just saving herself for the playground. We went back down there just as Ruby woke up, we decided to start off with our favourite park activity - swinging. As we're both pretty big now our mums pushed us really high and we both giggled away. Once we were done with swinging we went over to play with this guy:

He didn't move much but my mum told me that they can be very slow. Ruby moves much much faster and crawled all over the place. I did my best but I still haven't quite got the hang of it, I'm not sure if I'm doing it right:


for some reason I still keep going backwards but I'm getting pretty quick so I don't mind too much. My mum followed me the whole way trying to feed me at the same time which was very funny. We finished the day checking out this really cool sculpture:
you can't really tell from this but it's a big wave that the big kids were running through. Mum reckons it won't be too long before I can join them. Anyway after all of this I was pretty pooped so Mum decided it was time to go home. I had a really fun, smashing day, I hope this is the start of more adventure Fridays to come.

My Asian Food Adventure

I'm sorry I haven't had the chance to write in a while, I've been very busy during the week when I go to my friend Jessica's house to play with her and our lovely new nanny Izabela so I can't get to my computer as often. This weekend was a long weekend so I got to see my mum and Dad for 4 whole days which meant plenty of time to try out some of my new tricks that I've learned like shouting every time either one of them sits me down on the floor on my own, climbing (I'm getting very good at this) and I'm still trying to work out that crawling thing - I've been watching Ruby and I do all the right movements but for some reason things seem to get further away from me and not closer together. It's very frustrating!

Now that I'm very good at sitting in a high-chair Mum and Dad are taking me to lots of different places to eat, it's great because I've mastered a way of telling them that I want to try their food without having to resort to grabbing it off their plates. I just stare and stare and stare and once eye contact is established I raise my eyebrows and they get it!

Here's me in between Mum and Dad at Yank Sing which is a lovely Dim Sum restaurant where you can sit outside but you're still inside (a little bit confusing at first). Look at all that food they ordered!




Here's me and my Dad with my friend Ellie and her mum Ranee. I think Ellie looked very cool in her tracksuit. I taught Ellie the same food mind-trick and we both got to try tofu for the first time, I thought it was just OK but Ellie loved it.




Today I met up with my BFF Ruby and her mums and we went to a Thai restaurant that's very close to where I live. They only had one high-chair unfortunately and as I walked down to the restaurant with my Dad and Ruby had her stroller I got to sit in the high-chair which usually I don't mind but today I wasn't that keen.

They tried to keep me quiet with some food, I tried cucumber which looks a lot like gherkin which I love but it didn't taste anywhere near as good. The eyebrow trick didn't work too well today so I tried to grab some of Mum's yellow curry, it was mainly liquid and I wasn't quick enough to grab one of the big chunks of potato or tofu before she pulled my hand away.


I think Mum thought she was going to teach me a lesson by giving me the chunk of lemon from her drink but I thought it tasted great and ate it all up:

There's my lovely friend Ruby and her mums, Ruby was allowed to try some rice but she told me that it was much more fun to play with than it was to eat. I was a bit worried about Erika and Natalie, I thought maybe they'd got something wrong with them but Ruby told me they'd spent the weekend in LA and apparently everyone smiles like this in LA.


Got to go now, I have to pretend to go to bed so that Ruby can call me on her new phone.

Picnicking and Paddling

This Fridays 'Adventure with Leah and Ruby' took place at Aquatic Park in the city. Mum packed my lunch into the stroller then picked up some goodies in the Ferry Building for her and Erika and we headed up to Aquatic Park to meet Ruby and Erika. Ruby was still conducting her random nap strike so we met her and Erika half way down the Embarcadero as Erika hoped to lull Ruby to sleep in her stroller which actually worked by the time we met them. Ruby is trying to keep her mum guessing by not providing any clues when she's tired or by throwing false clues at Erika and then not napping for more than an hour later. I'm napping like clockwork at the moment but I'm only giving mum 30 minutes at any one time so that she can't get too settled. I'm also considering dropping one of those naps soon but I'm not going to tell her which one.

Anyway luckily for me Ruby woke up by the time we got the beach so that we could all have our picnic at the same time. I had sweet potato and cereal and I heard mum say she'd sneaked some beans in there somewhere. Ruby had carrots. Ruby has only just started eating her solids but she's doing ever so well and ate lots of carrots up. I had my eye on what mum was eating and although she kept that doughnut thing to herself she did share her cheese wheel with me which I chewed on for ages.

Once we'd eaten our food and played with the blocks for a while mum and Erika decided it was time for us to experience all that weird looking yellowy/brown stuff that was all around us. Me and Rubes dug our hands in really deep and it felt really really funny, so weird in fact we both decided we needed to investigate this new stuff in the only way we know how. It tasted disgusting!!!! I'm not sure what our mums were thinking of to be honest and as soon as I had a taste I had to put up with mums fingers shoved in my mouth to try and get rid of it. YUCKKK!

I'm not sure whether Erika and mum then decided to punish us for trying to eat the sand but they then took us down to look at the sea which was very pretty and it kept coming in and out, in and out. Ruby and me looked at it for ages but then it came in too far and I got my feet wet. It was absolutely freezing!!! Mum thought it was very funny. Obviously Erika thought my reaction was funny too because she made Ruby touch the water too.

When they put us both on our mat to play afterwards me and Ruby had a bit of a chat and we decided that since our mums think this kind of 'play' is funny, that we'd show them what we find funny several times that night. We both decided that once we were put down to sleep that we'd try and stage a breakout. Ruby managed to break out of her crib very quickly that night, I got as far as rotating 90 degrees and getting my foot stuck but mum quickly put me round the right way again so I settled for shouting every 45 minutes or so instead until I got a bit too tired and slipped up by sleeping for 4 hours. I think I'll have a go and grabbing mums coffee next time and see if I can do better.

Later peeps!

Leah's Second Demonstration

On Saturday I met my best friend Ruby and her mums Erika & Natalie for breakfast at my usual haunt - Rose Pistola's at the Saturday Farmer's Market. As usual I used my non-verbal powers of persuasion to get Mum to give me some of her breakfast, she let me try a little bit of egg which I spat back out (yeeuucch, it tasted of those slimy mushroom things she likes) but I enjoyed chewing on the toasted bread a lot! I even managed to use my little tooth to get a bit loose and make it soggy enough so that I could swallow it - yummy!

After breakfast our mums took us across the road to Justin Herman plaza to look at the very noisy people that had gathered there. They were split into two sections – one lot all held signs saying ‘Pro-Choice’, the other, much bigger group had signs saying ‘Pro-Life’. Apparently this lot gather here every year and shout at one another. Our mums thought it was important that Ruby and I saw both groups, the ‘Pro-Choice’ group was definitely more colourful with lots of people dressed up in costumes and singing songs but Ruby’s mums were much more interested to take a look at the ‘Pro-Life’ groups who had arrived on lots of buses from around the state. Here’s a picture of me and my mum and Ruby and her mum Natalie with this crowd:
Mum says it's interesting to see how many people in this crowd are men given the issue is primarily one that affects women. I think they misunderstood our intentions of standing next to them but we didn’t mind. As we were watching them all march off down the Embarcadero my mum spotted some grannies coming towards us. She thought they were very funny and wanted to have her picture taken with them – here they are:
So I’ve now been to two demonstrations in San Francisco, it’s great to live in a place where people feel they can get together and shout about something they believe in. I had a chat with Ruby afterwards and she told me that she’d learned about other forms of peaceful protesting and has been practising at home whenever her mums try and feed her vegetables. I told her that if she holds out for long enough they’re bound to give in and give her the good stuff – pears and apples. I did this with my mum and I haven’t looked back since, now I get pears all the time! We both agreed that that white, gloopy, sour stuff that comes in mini-tubs simply must not be tolerated so we’re going to join forces on that one.
Peace!

Sunday afternoon in Marin

Mum and Dad took me out to Marin today to get me some fresh air and to have a picnic. As usual they bickered like crazy before we got out, Dad was taking a very long time to get ready and Mum doesn't have any patience. I put up with it for a few minutes and then shouted at them to stop which they did. We drove over that lovely big red bridge, through an exciting tunnel with Mum making animal noises at me the whole way so that I didn't have time to think about being in my car seat. I was very good and didn't cry at all - I'm getting much better at riding in cars but every now and then I get a bit annoyed and have a bit of a shout just to keep them on their toes.

We parked up in Marin and Mum put me in the Bjorn so that I could have a good old look around but also so that Dad had to carry the heavy rucksack. Mum took this photo to show just how far we got before Dad had to stop and do something:
That's our car just behind him there!

We walked along a path next to the blue lagoon, here's me learning a bit about natural habitats:
At the end of the trail you get to the sea. It was very very very windy:
I liked it at first and laughed and stuck my tongue out but I think Mum got a bit worried that it was too windy because she kept shouting at Dad 'It's too bloody windy' and some other words that I didn't understand. I think she thought that my ears might start to hurt or I'd get sand in my eye but actually I was fine, I was just really tired and couldn't sleep because it was all too exciting. I started shouting 'It's too bloody windy' too and eventually she got the hint and turned me around in the Bjorn, put my hat on and walked back down the trail out of the wind. Luckily that was what I needed so that I could get some rest:
When I woke up we were at a much quieter place and we sat down on a blanket to have our picnic. They had their sandwiches and I had mine:
I also had some of their soup, and some of my food, I tried to have some of their biscuits but they wouldn't give me any. I saw Mum drinking out of a red bottle so I decided that I needed to have some of that too, luckily she got the hint and gave me a little bit. There was only water in there but it was lots of fun trying to drink out of the bottle:
It was a very lovely afternoon. I'll leave you with a photo of the three of us:

Leah and Ruby's day out at Fairyland

Mum was a little nervous of me going to Fairyland, she was scared I was going to start demanding fairy wings and tutus once I'd been there but it was more like Nursery Rhyme land. Today my friend Ruby and I went to a little park in Oakland especially for little ones, the whole place is themed around various nursery rhymes and stories with lots of animals and wooden sculptures. We had an absolutely smashing day in the sunshine talking to all the animals, eating ice-cream and playing WWF smackdown on our play-mat.

Mum and me have been practising our animal noises ever since Xmas so it was great to finally be able to see all those animals with all the great noises in person. However, for some reason Mum and Erika decided to start with these fellas:
As you can see, I wasn't too impressed. They then tried to fool me with this one:
but I humoured them because it gave me the opportunity to show off how well I can stand these days. Here's one who had a proper noise to make:
We also saw a sheep, roosters, guinea-pigs, a duck and a goose and these two:
Once we'd seen everything me and my mate Ruby had a roll around on our mat and got the rare chance to compare feet
as well as skydiving techniques:
We ended the day with a bit of wrestling, I think Ruby had me beat, I may be heavier but I think her longer reach gives her the advantage!

We have a tooth!!!

Leah's asleep so this is her mum posting on her behalf. Leah was obviously desperate to tell us something last night, she woke us up every couple of hours and we just thought it was her usual poor sleep habits but this morning I felt the very top ridges of a tiny tiny little tooth. I've tried repeatedly to prise open her little mouth to see if I can catch a glimpse of it but she sticks her tongue out and cover it up. After several attempts I finally saw the tiniest little silvery ridge...it's a tooth!!!!

As soon as it's possible to do so we will get a photo up here.